The Finnish Higher Education Evaluation Council has conducted an audit of the Hanken School of Economics. Based on the international audit team’s recommendation and the audit report, the Evaluation Council has decided to require the institution to undergo a re-audit. In its current state the quality system of Hanken School of Economics does not fulfil the national criteria set for the quality management of higher education institutions, and thus the system cannot be said to correspond to the European quality assurance principles and recommendations for higher education institutions.
The object of the audit was the quality system that the Hanken School of Economics has developed based on its own needs and goals. The optional audit target chosen by the institution was the Assurance of Learning process.
The following were regarded as key strengths of the quality system:
n There is a strong organisational culture characterized by a strong sense of purpose, result orientation and a commitment to advancement of the university.
n Student feedback is taken seriously and leads to changes at course level.
n There are established and natural ways of involving alumni and corporate connections in the operations.
n There is a very systematic process for implementing the strategy throughout the organisation using performance agreements and development discussions.
Among other things, the following recommendations were made for the Hanken School of Economics:
n The accreditations that Hanken has pursued have led to the development of many established quality management procedures which contribute to the development of the operations. However, Hanken would benefit from integrating these into one overall quality system and defining the objectives, structure and operating principles of this system. This would provide opportunities to enhance efficiency, to reduce risk and to help Hanken respond to change.
n It would be desirable if Hanken were to develop more systematic methods to manage its quality processes in order to give more emphasis to the evaluation and improvement stages of the Hanken Quality Loop 2013.
n It is recommended that Hanken structure the documentation of the procedures, processes and systems that it uses to maintain and develop the quality of its activities, paying particular attention to access to information. This would lead to better traceability and would help identify inefficiencies and areas in need of development in its operations.
The re-audit will concentrate on the quality policy of the higher education institution (audit target 1), on samples of degree education at bachelor’s and master’s level (audit target 5) and on the quality system as a whole (audit target 6).